Introduction

Originally from Sweden, I moved to London in 2009 to study Bespoke Tailoring at LCF – the course I am now teaching. I began lecturing the first year students in 2020. This was right in the middle of the pandemic, between the two lock-downs. It took a while before I met my colleagues  and line manager IRL, which made for an relatively independent and sometimes lonely start to my time at LCF. Now, many team meetings and trainings later, I am looking forward to developing my practice doing the PGCert. We moved to East Bank last year – with an incredible view from our  11th floor classroom windows and the building teaming with students from different programs, 2020 feels like a very long time ago.

When I am not teaching, I make bespoke coats for Huntsman in Savile Row, specialising in women’s tailoring. I am happy that I can continue to explore my craft, and I think it is vital that I keep up-to-date with industry practices and stay connected to the trade. This allows me to both develop my own making and better support my students in their training.

I am looking forward to doing the PGCert – to meet colleagues and discuss all aspects of teaching and working at the university. I hope we will reflect on different approaches to teaching, the diversity of student needs, the purpose of education, the sometimes limited resources and much more. I am hoping to learn new teaching methods and theories, and ways to apply these in my own practice. I am also hopeful that experiencing the student perspective again will deepen my understanding of my own students’ needs.

This last aspect has already been realised. During the introduction session we made sure we could access the Moodle pages, set up the blog, get the passwords to work, along with deciphering the unit assessment brief. It was very helpful to have this session in person, and be able to solve technical problems straight away. This is something I think would be really helpful to introduce to our first year students.